Is Declan Rice the best midfielder in the Premier League?

It is time to stop hedging:Declan Riceis the best central midfielder in the Premier League, and Anfield was the latest proof. Rice collected the player of the match award after Arsenal won 1-0 at Liverpool on Sunday, and it was his overlap and low cross that set up Kai Havertz for the winner.

Jamie Carragher went even further on Sky Sports, saying:"He's the best midfield player in the Premier League by a long way. And the strange thing is how long it has taken for the rest of the country to say it out loud.

Plenty of midfielders in this league have cost around £100m, and some of them are very good players. But how many of them look like a bargain?

Rice cost £105m when he arrived from West Ham in 2023, and three years on nobody even mentions the fee. The numbers back up the eye test.

Before Anfield he had 22 goals and 35 assists in 170 Arsenal appearances, and four assists in eight Premier League matches this season. He has been Arsenal's Player of the Season in each of the last two campaigns, and at 27 he is only now reaching his prime years.

Is there anything he can't do? He has played as a number six, as a number eight and at right-back for Mikel Arteta.

He wins the ball back, reads the game, blocks shots, covers for his own mistakes and for his teammates' too. Then he takes the set pieces, arrives in the box and chips in with goals and assists.

He matters in every phase of play, which is rarer than it sounds. Most elite midfielders are brilliant at one or two things.

Rice is very good at almost all of them, and he turns up in the big moments rather than hiding from them. Can he pass the ball forward?"